


Sail Across the Waves

by Metal_Chocobo



Category: Moana (2016), The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Sailing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 13:46:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10514961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metal_Chocobo/pseuds/Metal_Chocobo
Summary: It was unlike any boat Ariel had ever seen.





	

When she broke through the surface Ariel found the sun overhead instead of stars. That ball of fire in the sky nearly blinded her, like it always did when she visited during the day, a concept foreign to her underwater lifestyle, and she had to squint until her eyes adjusted. By the time her cheeks had dried Ariel could see again. She twisted around, looking for signs of anything interesting in the open water. What she found was entrancing.

Not that far away she spotted a figure dancing on the waves. No, that wasn’t right, the human—for that had to be a human—was on a tiny boat, but it was unlike any boat Ariel had ever seen. Back home boats came in two sizes: so massive they could carry dozens of humans and all their things across vast stretches of ocean or small squat blocks of wood that moved with tiny sticks, though occasionally a little sail would be attached, and were slower than the fishes the humans chased. This boat was something else entirely. Shaped like a tree trunk, boat that barely dipped into the water or above it and a few feet away there was a smaller plank of wood connected to the trunk with branches. Above the boat soared a massive sail that had to be bigger than the boat. From the way the boat twisted and turned on the waves she could barely believe this was a boat, as she had never seen such a nimble human invention before. It was almost like watching a flying fish in the sky.

The human leapt from place to place on the boat, gleefully laughing as she caused her craft to spin like it was caught in a whirlpool before it would jolt away in one direction or another. She sang as her hair billowed in the wind with a joyful abandon Ariel had previously only seen under the sea, as humans on land seemed so tightly repressed. Even her human when he was playing the snarfblat didn’t look half as joyous as this one did playing with the waves. Ariel didn’t understand what she was singing—the words were so strange and unfamiliar to her ear, even considering the fact they came from a human’s mouth—but she found herself laughing along anyway.

Unfortunately, Ariel had forgotten sound carried almost as well along the top of water as it did through it and her laugh attracted the girl’s attention. Ariel tried to dunk out of view, but it was too late. The girl gasped upon spotting her and her hand must have loosened her grip on that cord she had had been holding because she toppled straight into the water with a splash.

Of course Ariel dove under after her. Even if Daddy didn’t approve of her rescuing humans, she couldn’t avoid doing it in this case. It was Ariel’s fault this poor girl was drowning and she wasn’t about to cause her death. So she kicked as hard as she could, rapidly covering the distance between them. When she got within a tail length of her she reached out a hand to grab hold. Even if she was all muscle, she was still just a slip of a girl and Ariel imagined it would be no trouble hauling her back to the surface, though she’d have to throw her back onto her boat. Since arriving in her grandfather’s realm she had yet to spot land of any sort. The boat would be good enough; the human had only been underwater for a handful of heartbeats and would likely recover quickly as she had almost reached her.

Before she could get a grip on the human’s shoulder, there was a sudden influx of current. Ariel couldn’t properly describe it, but it was like a geyser surged forth out of nowhere and propelled the human up out of the ocean and back onto the boat as Ariel followed to ensure that the human was safe. However, it couldn’t possibly have been a geyser because, and Ariel had never seen anything like it before in her life, had not only curved over to deposit her, but stayed in place like a picture of a wave. It stayed in place. This was the most unnerving thing Ariel had ever seen because the ocean never stopped; it was ever moving, ever changing. And yet, it now seemed to be alive in a way Ariel had never experienced in her sixteen years of life, nor heard mention in any tales from any of Atlantis’s elders. Now it seemed to be observing the human, waiting to see if she was okay.

She coughed, spat out some water, and rolled onto her side. The ocean bent down close to her and she laughed before mumbled something and slapping the wave with her hand. Ariel found this vaguely alarming, as it seemed like a fairly disrespectful gesture, but the girl was nonchalant about her actions and the ocean seemed to accept them as the stationary wave sank back down into the sea as the waves returned to normal. Clearly, this wasn’t a normal human and considering the fact she was on good terms with the ocean itself Ariel thought it would be rude if she didn’t introduce herself.

“Hello!” Ariel grinned and waved. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

She smiled back and said something unintelligible. Ariel continued smiling, but was beginning to wonder if maybe all humans didn’t speak human. Then she held out a hand to Ariel and waggled her fingers in a friendly manner. With minimal hesitation, she grasped it. All things considered, this was one of the safest situations she could be in with a human—there wasn’t a net in sight!

With surprising strength she hauled Ariel up into the boat. Her tail hit the wood roughly, but her bottom half was pulled into the boat with ease. Ariel didn’t know who was more surprised by the situation, her for suddenly being in a boat, or the human, who clearly had thought Ariel was also human. A stream of words bubbled out of the girl’s mouth, totally unbidden like a hidden stream, and they cascaded over Ariel for a long while until she eventually ran out of steam. Then she took a deep breath and in a much calmer voice asked Ariel a question.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” Ariel said gently. “I know you asked me a question, but you don’t speak Human. Or, I mean, you don’t speak a Human I understand.” 

She frowned. After a pause she patted her chest. “Moana.”

“Excuse me?”

“Moana,” she repeated. Tapping her chest twice more she said the word again.”

“Are you… Moana?” Ariel asked, point a finger at her. She smiled and nodded.

Moana then rattled off another question and pointed down at her.

“Ariel,” Ariel said, tapping her own chest.

“Ar-iel?” Moana said. She had a funny way of saying Ariel’s name, but Ariel liked the way it rolled off her tongue. She repeated her name once more for Moana, more slowly this time, and when Moana parroted her it sounded much more like her name. Ariel was sure she could grow to love hearing Moana say her name.

They spent the rest of the day sailing together. If Moana hadn’t pulled her onboard, Ariel probably would have swam alongside the boat like the dolphins they came across did for a time, but since she was aboard, she wanted to experience sailing. That soon proved problematic, as the sun’s rays quickly dried out her tail, which left her feeling uncomfortable and dehydrated. Luckily, Moana had a solution for that, stuffing Ariel’s tail inside a secret part of the boat and filling it with water. After that solution Ariel had an absolute blast.

They still didn’t understand each other’s words, but they didn’t need to. Moana’s joy was self-evident and Ariel expected her emotional state was just as easy to understand. Once Moana was comfortably navigating her craft again she started singing again. Ariel still didn’t know the words and so she joined in as harmony, matching the easy rhythm of the melody. That earned her another grin. Before long she joined her in singing the chorus as well, which as far as she could grasp, was about loving the sea. In all of her wildest fantasies involving humans, Ariel never dreamed of singing such a tune.

Most of the day’s sailing seemed to be directed solely by the wind’s choice. However, once the sun sank down to the horizon Moana took charge of the sail and directed the boat in a single direction. At first Ariel didn’t notice, as she was too busy gazing up at the strange stars overhead. So it was a shock when the rough rocking of the waves unexpectedly went away leaving them in calm waters. When she looked around Ariel realized they had entered a lagoon protected by a coral reef. Straight ahead of them was an island. She could see lights and lights meant people. Moana was taking her to her village.

Ariel couldn’t go. As much as she loved humans and wanted to meet as many as possible, sailing into a village of them didn’t sound like the best of ideas to her. If they were truly dangerous like Daddy always insisted, there was no way for her to get away if she sailed right into their village. She had to make a choice. For once in her life Ariel chose the cautious route.

“Thank you,” Ariel said. “I had the best day ever with you.”

Moana smiled at her and responded, bit it was clear she didn’t understand her.

Then Ariel flipped out of the boat into the water. She immediately looked up to see how the human reacted to her escape. Moana had rushed over to the side of the boat and crouched down to peer into the water. She didn’t appear angry or upset about Ariel’s disappearance, simply bit her lip and appeared to be searching for any signs of movement. Perhaps she was worried about Ariel? The lagoon was rather shallow here; maybe she thought she had hit her head.

On a spur of the moment decision Ariel returned to the surface. Moana exhaled heavily and grinned at her. She started to say something, but Ariel cut her off with a light kiss on the lips. She pulled back before she could really register what kissing a human felt like, shocked by her own forwardness. This time as she fell back onto the water and slowly sank she could see a smile gracing Moana’s lips as she disappeared from view. Her own mouth curved into a matching grin. 

Moana was different from Ariel’s first human; she was better. Getting to know another human was the exact opposite of what Daddy wanted when he destroyed her treasure grotto and sent her off to live with Grandfather Poseidon via giant clam, but that was exactly what Ariel intended to do. Perhaps in time she’d learn Moana’s language, though they had proved they didn’t need words. Moana was different, new, and exciting, but most of all she reminded Ariel of freedom, which was what she truly yearned for. She couldn’t wait to sail with her again.


End file.
